18U in Aiea tourney semifinals

It was a busy Saturday. Thunder 18U rallied from 10 down to top Hoops4Christ by 16 (I don't have the score yet) in pool play at the Aiea Tournament. That was our second win in pool play, clinching a spot in the tournament semifinals. In the second game, we led at halftime but lost to Lanakila 52-50.

Thunder 18U will meet Aiea Blazers on Sunday, 10:40 am, in a semifinal. Congrats to the boys and Coaches Larry and Bo. 

The 15U defeated Hanalani 61-35 at the Pearl City JV League to improve to 9-0. We have one more regular-season game on Thursday, and then a game on Saturday for the league championship. 

The 15U also defeated the Blue Devils 58-46 in CAL League play at Palolo gym. The Blue Devils included Kali‘a Mielke, of our 13U team. His original team is the Blue Devils (15U). He hit a 3-pointer from the corner and had a solid game. 

The Thunder 15U scored 41 points in the first half, getting real close to the record of 44 points in one half by the 17U team in the summer of 2011. The 15U record is 43 points set in the summer of '11 against Kapolei. The 15U are now 4-1 in CAL play, including 2-0 in the championship division. 

The 13U lost a heartbreaker 25-22 to Kailua, which is still unbeaten. We had two open 3-pointers in the final seconds and missed both. Kailua is probably the tallest team in the age group, but I think if Tanielu played, we would've fared better. He sat out after being ejected in Friday night's game against Sharks2 for colliding with another player. That triggered an automatic one-game suspension by the league, but he got to play in the 15U game today (against Blue Devils) and the earlier JV game against Hanalani.

We also missed Chris' defense and rebounding inside. He stayed home to babysit today. 

All in all, pretty good day for the Thunder. Easily could've been 5-0. But 3-2 ain't bad, and there was a lot of fun.